For Nick Spicher, a museum educator from Everett, Wash., it’s no minor matter of dialect. His pronunciation cost him a $1,600 answer on his “Jeopardy!” appearance on Monday, and the show’s decision has since been hotly debated.

The category was “Music and literature before and after,” requiring contestants to link two separate titles by a common word. The clue read: “A song by Coolio from ‘Dangerous Minds’ goes back in time to become a 1667 John Milton classic.”

“Although Nick’s response of ‘Gangster’s Paradise Lost’ was initially accepted, the hard R sound caught the ear of one member of the onstage team, who immediately followed up with a quick check,” the blog post said. “It turns out that ‘gangsta’ and ‘gangster’ are both listed separately in the Oxford English Dictionary, each with its own unique definition. Nick changed not only the song’s title, but also its meaning — making his response unacceptable.”

Sure enough, the Oxford English Dictionary defines gangster as “a member of a criminal gang, esp. one involved in organized crime,” while it defines gangsta as “a member of an urban territorial gang.”

Alison Shapiro, a spokeswoman for the show, said producers did not consider it a matter of pronunciation or dialect.

“Had we accepted ‘gangster,’ the other contestants would have a very good reason to complain, in that the title of the song is ‘Gangsta’s Paradise,’ and we would have accepted something that is not the title,” the producers said, according to Ms. Shapiro. “Every ruling we make not only affects the contestant who responded, but their opponents as well.”

But another leading authority came to Mr. Spicher’s defense: Coolio told TMZ he thought the answer should have counted.

“I probably would have gave it to him,” the rapper said.

But he also offered a linguistic lesson.

“This is for white people,” he said. “The E-R will always get you in trouble.”

There is a history of “Jeopardy!” judges being sticklers for pronunciation. In 2015, Rob Russell’s game unraveled on a $2,000 Daily Double because he pronounced “foliage” as “foilage,” a common regionalism that was once mocked on “The Simpsons.” In February 2016, Bill Murphy was originally given credit for naming France’s second-busiest seaport as Le Havre, but it was overturned because he pronounced it in a way that rhymes with the former Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre.

In October 2017, Austin Rogers got an $800 question wrong because he pronounced “sherbet” as “sherbert.”

“I’m from New York. That’s how we say it,” Mr. Rogers responded.

It all raises the question: Whose pronunciation does “Jeopardy!” consider to be correct? We already know that when it comes to Americans, y’all, youse and you guys talk differently.

Ms. Shapiro said some pronunciation disputes are settled by the dictionary. For example, “expresso” is listed as a variant on “espresso,” so that would be allowed.

But judges make subjective calls on whether a nonstandard pronunciation is common enough or if it’s just plain wrong, she said.

“Also, we understand there are regional dialects and accents, and keep that in mind in our judgments,” she said in an email.

Andy Saunders, who runs The “Jeopardy!” Fan site, said the judges “often expect general American pronunciation in the general American dialect.”

He couldn’t recall any times contestants were penalized because of accents, but pronunciations are a frequent topic of debate among the show’s die-hard fans. Earlier in Monday’s episode, there was some dispute over how a contestant pronounced another music/literature mash-up: “will.i.ambic pentameter,” he said.

As for the gangsta/gangster mix-up, he agreed with the judges. Titles must be exact, and the two words do have slightly separate meanings, he said.

“Coolio thought that the judges should have given it to him, but I’m also not entirely sure Coolio is completely aware” of the “Jeopardy!” rule book, he said.

The dispute ended up having little impact on Mr. Spicher’s game; he still triumphed, and he most likely would have won the same amount of money because he would have bet differently in the final round, Mr. Saunders said.

On Twitter, Mr. Spicher appeared to have a sense of humor about it. He said producers stopped taping “for what felt like an eternity” before an executive producer came on stage to explain the ruling to him.

“That’s partly why I didn’t have much of a reaction on camera,” he said.

At first he thought: “Didn’t I say ‘gangsta?’ ” But he figured they had listened closely enough to come up with a definitive answer.

“They had every right to call me out on it,” he said. “And I will be forever proud of the moment that Alex Trebek taught me how to say ‘gangsta.’ ”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Jeopardy!’ Draws LineOn Gangster/Gangsta. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe